Uf Rakes In Cash

Others Not So Rich

Money From Gators Merchandise, Ticket Sales And Tv Keeps Rolling In, Even Without Return To National Title Game

December 28, 2009|By Sarah Talalay Staff Writer

Gators fans might be smarting from their team's loss to Alabama that ended hopes of a return to the BCS national championship game, but University of Florida athletics represent the gold standard for financial success in the state.

With four national championships - two each in football and men's basketball - in four years, UF is rolling in revenue. UF football is among the country's top-grossing programs, with 2008 revenues exceeding $66 million for a program that cost $19 million to operate, records filed with the NCAA show. Those numbers don't include last season's championship.

Ticket sales to Friday's Sugar Bowl - where UF faces Cincinnati - are reportedly slow, but the Gators will still cash in. Having UF and Alabama in BCS bowl games means an additional $22.8 million for Southeastern Conference schools to share. Sales of blue and orange gear helped UF rank second behind only No. 2 Texas in royalties last year, according to the Collegiate Licensing Co. Among the latest items to hit shelves: UF perfume and cologne.

Business isn't quite as sweet-smelling for some of Florida's other collegiate football programs. Football at Florida Atlantic and Florida International is still in its infancy, so those schools have to compete for TV coverage, charge higher student fees and get conference subsidies to attend bowl games.

But the benefits outweigh the costs, some say.

"I think when you have a football program, it really raises the visibility and status of your institution," FAU Athletic Director Craig Angelos said.

Angelos said applications to FAU have increased and the school is planning an on-campus stadium as part of a development of dorms and shops. With a losing record at 5-7, the Owls missed a bowl after winning their bowl games the past two years. But even last year, the team didn't realize the $750,000 it was to get from appearing in the Motor City Bowl.

"We're thinking we'll take our [travel] expenses of $350,000 out and we're going to pocket the rest," Angelos said. The profit, however, would only materialize if FAU sold its allotment of 16,000 game tickets. When that didn't happen, the team got a subsidy from the Sun Belt Conference to help cover expenses, Angelos said.

In 2008, records filed with NCAA show FAU spent $4.5 million to operate football, but made only $2.7 million. Student athletic fees raised $8 million. This year, FAU raised its athletic fee from $13.75 a credit hour to $14.30 - the third highest in the state. FIU charges $14.51 a credit hour plus a $10 flat fee. UF's is the lowest at $1.90 a credit hour.

Football helps put some universities in the black. The University of Miami's football revenues exceeded expenses by $6 million in 2008, records show. The move to Land Shark Stadium from the Orange Bowl two years ago has meant an extra $4 million a year, said Hurricanes Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt.

The Hurricanes' participation in Tuesday's Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando against Wisconsin means another $2 million for the Atlantic Coast Conference. That's in addition to the $18.3 million the conference gets because Georgia Tech is playing Iowa in the FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 5. Those dollars are split among conference teams. A second ACC team in a BCS bowl would have meant another $4.5 million for the conference.

"Hopefully the case in the near future is we'll have two teams invited to be part of the BCS," Hocutt said.

The bigger the school, the more money to go around. Texas ranks No. 1 in licensed merchandise sales - and pays its football coach Mack Brown the most in the country, agreeing earlier this month to a $5 million annual salary starting next year.

While most schools pump sports revenue back into athletics, Florida has put more than $48 million toward the school's academic programs since 1990, according to an audit of the program.

It will be several years, Angelos said, before FAU creates the kind of history UF has with more than 100 years playing football.

"We just finished our ninth season," Angelos said. "We're like a startup company trying to catch GE. We're growing leaps and bounds very quickly, but they're a well-oiled machine."

Sarah Talalay can be reached at stalalay@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4173.

INFORMATIONAL BOX:

Royalty revenue

Collegiate Licensing Co., which handles the licensing rights for nearly 200 colleges, conferences and bowl games, ranks institutions based on their royalty revenues, which represent the percentage licensees pay on the wholesale cost of merchandise. Here's a sampling from the five top-selling CLC schools for July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009: